Newsletter
17 January, 2018

Dear all,

I hope you had healthy, fibre and protein-rich breakfast to start your day in this world of whirlwind, heat & flash. As per usual, we would like to tell you of those stories affecting us all in ways direct & imperceptible but this time there we have a few warm memories very dear to share with you. That is, Lina Lapelytė’s first solo show ‘Pirouette‘, curated by Justė Jonutytė at Rupert, which can be seen on ArtViewer and 4th Alternative Education Program alumni Anastasija Sosunova’s video installation première ‘Demikhov Dog‘ at Ignalina Culture and Sports Centre, curated by Adomas Narkevičius, organised by Rupert can now be viewed on AQNB. And if you’d prefer to zoom your lens out a tad, here is a review of a fabulous year of the good, bad & the ugly in the art of Central Europe.

Looking ahead, we are excited to announce Open Calls to both the Rupert Residency Program (July – December) and 6th edition of the Alternative Education Program this month. The Residency Program is dedicated to local and international practitioners and thinkers: visual artists, writers, curators, sound artists, cultural managers and academics. Rupert provides an opportunity to live and work in Vilnius while developing individual projects and immersing oneself in the region’s contemporary art world.

Meanwhile, every edition of the Alternative Education Program begins anew exploring different modes of engagement and pedagogical formats. The focus of this year’s Program derives from a quote by Suhail Malik, taken from a seminar with last year’s participants: “Artists must break out of a self-defeating logic. You should regard yourselves as inter-related subjects of power, and that power can be moral.” We will consider new forms of collective empowerment, not limited to short term personal gains through endlessly anxious symbolic capital accumulation. This initial framework is only an optional guideline, enabling the participants to find a starting point for the development of individual ideas and collective processes.

Please remember, the deadline to both open calls is 31 January, midnight. I promise to keep you updated with latest news through our website, Facebook and Instagram.

Snowy −6°C greetings from Vilnius,

Rupert

In Residence

Jacob Dwyer

Jacob Dwyer (b. 1988, UK) is an artist based in Amsterdam. His work has been shown in art spaces and film festivals including, IFFR, IDFA, BFI, BALTIC 39, Galerie Juliette Jongma and Herrmann Germann Contemporary. He has completed residencies at De Ateliers and Deltaworkers.

At Rupert, he will develop a series of audio works to be presented in cinemas. The works will be driven by a range of characters/voices who approach reality from a position somehow outside of it. In relation to Rupert’s setting he is interested in the writings of Witold Gombrowicz, whose narratives often play out between a city and the nature that surrounds it. The residency at Rupert is kindly supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.

In Residence

Ellie Hunter

Ellie Hunter (b. 1989, USA) is an artist and curator based between Los Angeles, CA and Richmond, VA. She received her MFA in sculpture + extended media from Virginia Commonwealth University (2017) and her BA in studio art and Latin American literature from Dartmouth College (2011). Hunter is the co-founder of The Sunroom, a gallery and publishing platform.

At Rupert, Hunter will develop a series of sculptural works as an inquiry into the anesthetized body. The sculptures will draw upon materials collected from the surrounding natural environment at Rupert, as well as cast metal instruments in order to embody an interplay of activated and deactivated forms.

Open Call
Deadline: 31 January 2018

Rupert Residency Program 2018 (July-December)

We are excited to announce the Open Call for Rupert Residency Program 2018! Residencies will take place between 1 July – 31 December 2018. For more, click here.

Open Call
Deadline: 31 January 2018

6th Rupert Alternative Education Program

The 6th edition of the Alternative Education Program will take place between March and September 2018. The program is curated by Adomas Narkevičius and joined by Joanna Warsza, Orit Gat, Jörg Heiser, Martha Kirszenbaum, Myriam Ben Salah, Fatos Üstek, Owen Griffiths, Laurynas Adomaitis and more local and international tutors.

For more, click here.

In Residence

Eli Kerr & Daphné Boxer

Daphné Boxer (b.1987, Canada) and Eli Kerr (b.1988, Canada) are a curatorial duo operating under the project name Vie d’Ange. They produce exhibitions from a 300 m² former auto-body garage divided into two gallery spaces in Montréal, Canada. With a focus on material legacies of technological shifts and the reorganization of social systems, their exhibition program is approached as a continuous yet non-linear script of episodic narratives.

At Rupert, the duo will begin developing a publication adjacent to their exhibition platform.